No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for July 3rd, 2008

Is it a Flipflop if You Don’t Actually Flip?

by @ 19:50. Filed under Politics - National.

In an interview  this week with “Relevant,” a Christian magazine, Obama said prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain “a strict, well defined exception for the health of the mother.”

Obama then added: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.”

Wow! Barack Obama is now running limping to the center even on abortion rights!

Except he’s not.

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is a bill (Senate 1173 and House 1964) that Barack Obama has said he would immediately sign if he was President. At a speech to  the Planned Parenthood Action Fund Obama said:

“The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” Obama said in his July speech to abortion advocates worried about the increase of pro-life legislation at the state level.

The specific language of the bill that Obama was addressing is:

(b) Prohibition of Interference- A government may not–

(1) deny or interfere with a woman’s right to choose–
(A) to bear a child;
(B) to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability; or
(C) to terminate a pregnancy after viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman; or

(emphasis mine)

Looking at the language and listening to Obama, it seems like he is using a reasonable interpretation of what “health” is, except his definition of “health” is not what the Supreme Court has found in prior decisions. According to: The Supreme Court on Abortion: A Survey
by Mark Tushnet, from Abortion, Medicine, and the Law, Third Edition, 1986, pp. 162

“The final stage of pregnancy under Roe v. Wade occurs after the fetus becomes viable. After viability, the state could regulate or prohibit abortions unless they were “necessary, in appropriate medical judgement”, to preserve the life or health of the woman. This standard must be read, however, in light of the Court’s decision the same day in Doe v. Bolton, that clinical judgement “may be exercised in light of all factors — physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age — relevant to the well-being of the patient

(again, emphasis mine)

Obama is Co-Sponser  of the Senate version of FOCA, the bill that if unchanged and left to the Supreme Court, will likely allow partial birth abortions for a wide variety of reasons including claims of mental health impacts. Yet Obama claims mental health shouldn’t be a reason. That seems to leave me with only two conclusions about Obama’s interview comments:

1. This is another example of Obama backing off of an earlier commitment

or

2. Barack knows full well the implications of the Supreme Court’s previous decisions and his comments to a Christian magazine were nothing but deceitful pandering.

You decide.

Home invasion gear – man’s hat, woman’s coat, barbecue sauce

by @ 19:48. Filed under Miscellaneous.

(H/T – Mary)

This story of a man who was wearing the aforementioned items when he was confronted by the homeowner up in Appleton is just too rich. I wonder what part of the brilliant plan of hiding out from the FBI, who he claims was after him for giving secrets to terrorists, was the part that gave him away; the breaking-in, the whistling, the hat, the coat, or the barbecue sauce. Predictably, his defense attorney wants him loose on the streets of Appleton.

Jon Ham asked whether it was a tomato- or vinegar-based sauce. What, no mustard-based? Lemur King has a killer mustard sauce that goes great on pulled pork.

The Morni…er, Afternoon Scramble/Open Thread Thursday – 7/3/2008

Once again, I’m late, and this time, without video. Owen explains why. So much for the free lunch music…

  • Lawhawk proves once again that Gorebal “Warming” is all about permanently reducing the quality of American life, as the acolytes attack flat-screen TVs.
  • Ed Driscoll found all of the anti-Obama statements on the Hillary Clinton website and YouTube channel have fallen into the memory hole. They’ll be back.
  • Nick Schweitzer has a not-so-random thought or two on election fraud.
  • Mondoreb found a letter from OPEC to Congress thanking them for not doing anything substantive to reduce our dependence on them, like drilling now.
  • S. Weasel defines torture.

Harry Reid, meet Aaron Rodgers

by @ 5:27. Filed under Politics - National, Sports.

In a teary press conference earlier this year, Brett Favre told the world he was retiring. He seemed to be pretty clear that he was serious about it:

a news conference at Lambeau Field two days after he announced his retirement. “It’s been a great career for me, but it’s over.”

Now Brett Favre is inkling that is retirement may not be as retiring as he said earlier this year. I could go into whether this is a good or bad thing for Brett, the NFL, the Green Bay Packers etc. but I’ll leave that up to those who find the cheese hats fashionable.

What did strike me were the comments from Green Bays back up and thought to be now starting QB, Aaron Rodgers. In a separate article discussing his future as the QB for the Pack, Aaron is quoted as saying:

“I don’t feel I need to sell myself to the fans,” he said in the article. “They need to get on board now or keep their mouths shut.”

Wow! For a guy who’s been in the NFL for all of 3 seasons, and has the same number of touchdown passes as interceptions (1), that’s pretty nervy. Sounds a lot like Harry Reid’s tirad on Mitch McConnell the other day. The only part that Aaron left out was something along the lines of, “Why are you afraid of supporting me? You think Brett’s coming back to take over? How stupid can you be? Brett’s retired! Who could possibly be afraid of a retired guy???”

Well Aaron, like Harry Reid, you may find that the guys you scoff at may have the last laugh after all!

The Nader Factor – redux

by @ 5:01. Filed under Politics - National.

A new poll is out showing that Ralph Nader is still polling about 6% nationally and Bob Barr is polling about 3%.

I wrote after he announced his candidacy, that I believed Nader would have an impact on the 2008 race.   Folks then and now continue to pooh pooh that thinking.   They naysayers kept saying that Nader’s vote would look more like his 2004 performance, about .4% of the total vote, rather than his 2000 total which was closer to 3%.

This latest poll gives me more reason to believe that Nader will have something that looks more like his 2000 performance, perhaps better.   The experts on the poll even now suggest that Nader will likely see his polling at about 3% as the election occurs.

I still believe that Nader could well be the spoiler in this election.

First, take a look at the first chart that I had in my original article.   Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are states where Nader’s % of the vote in 2000 were enough to change possible slim winning margins to losses.   They are also states where current polling suggests that when asked about a Obama/McCain race, McCain to be in either a winning position or within a couple of points.   It’s hard to imagine an Obama victory if each of those 3 states are lost.

Second, I believe the Nader effect may not have seen its peak yet.   Over the past couple of weeks Obama has been making attempts to move to the center.   Obama has flipflopped on gun rights and FISA throwing his furthest left supporters into tizzies.   As Obama continues to attempt moves to convince middle America that he’s “just like them,” I would expect the Left’s margins to do a little peeling and end up in Nader’s court.   I’m not suggesting that Nader will ever be a serious contender.   All he has to do pick up fractions of, or maybe 1% additional in a couple of states and that could spell the difference in what is likely to be a close electoral race.

Yea, Bob Barr is still there and some may argue that he could impact McCain in the same way that Nader impacts Obama.   I really don’t expect that to happen.   My reasoning is that McCain is pretty much McCain.   the Right (far, near or inbetween) already know where McCain stands.   McCain started left of center (at least that’s the perspective of nearly all on the Right who didn’t initially support McCain or maybe Huckabee) so I just don’t see his moves any more annoying than what folks on the Right believe him to already be.

The Nader factor will be one to watch. I can’t imagine the newest poll is helping the Obama people sleep any better at night.

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